Part (a) Lodge Bistro Problems
Part (b) Understanding the Problems
Part (c) Addressing the Problems

Part (a) Lodge Bistro Problems

My report for The Lodge Bistro will be focusing on identifying the current issues, understanding their impact on the business, and ensuring the correct steps to resolve them. I will do this utilising a SWOT analysis (Capon, 2004), which is a well-known business concept, aimed at increasing competitive advantage. It concentrates on your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Currently the core issues facing the Bistro revolve around the following:

1) High turnover of staff, which is affecting overall morale and quality standards. It is also creating extra expenditure in the form of repeated training sessions required and lost man hours required of existing staff. 2) Outdated décor and concepts, restricted geographic locations, and increased competition offering more modern and fresh ideas to a wider demographic, are impacting sales. 3) Inconsistent approaches by both management and staff dealing with a smaller niche customer base, with a lower disposable income. 4) Failing to deal with issues that have arisen in the middle of an economic recession.

Part (b) Understanding the Problems

A SWOT analysis and its interpretation will assist in identifying the issues and their relevant resolutions. It will then allow for decisions to be made, in allocating finite resources, and focusing them in either bolstering strengths or fixing weaknesses. This will then help determine opportunities for growth and expansion and ways in which to deal with threats to the business.

SWOT ANALYSIS FOR LODGE BISTRO CHAIN

STRENGTHS
Well established concept
Loyal customer base
Company prestige
25 Established restaurants
Long serving...

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...which limits their client-baseMinimal advertising means only people who physically travel to the events will see it. A wide range of people are missing out on their brand. |
Opportunities | The main opportunity is now that it has merged with Tim Best travel they can offer both long and short holidays to compliment the other and give a variety of options to customers and obviously bring in the new clientele. |
Threats | Competition with other companies pricing schemes.Merging with another company could have an effect on reputation such as current holidays on offer. |
Overall word count - 373
References
Preston, D, Fryer, M, Watson, G (2012), What is a business? Milton Keynes, The Open University.
The Open University (2011) B120 Study Companion, “Study Companion”, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
External Stakeholders
http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/reed-elsevier/corporate-responsibility-and-stakeholders/external-stakeholders.html#axzz3192Qo8XX
SWOT Analysis
http://www.managementstudyguide.com/swot-analysis.htm...

...B120TMA01
Part 1
Dear Patricia Lodge,
In this report, as requested, I hope to help you understand the current situation, of the Lodge Bistro Chain. I believe the issues affecting the business are: staffing problems, growing competition, inconsistency in the approach of management, attracting lower spending customers, disagreement between managers and company standards lowering.
Part (a)
The staffing issue, more specifically the high staff turnover, is affecting the expenditure of the company due to the constant training which is also impacting upon existing staff due to the pressure and responsibility being put on them. The service will also lack in quality and consistency due to this problem; having both inexperienced and overworked staff will affect the quality of service, resulting in the possibility of a bad reputation exposed to the public, your potential customers.
Growing competition in the Cafe market is also proving a big problem, as you have stuck with the same theme from the late 80’s, this is tiring with customers who are maybe looking for a fresher look and feel.
Inconsistency in management and how each branch is run is also a big problem. Customers see your brand, and expect consistency in every cafe. You cannot afford to let management overrun your business with their own ideas, thus almost creating a franchise! This is drastically lowering the company’s standards.
Part (b)
I have chosen to create a SWOT Analysis for...

...﻿
B120
An Introduction to Business Studies
TMA01
By
TMA01 – Part 1
CONTENTS: Page No.
Part I – Report on Lodge Bistro 3
Summary & Introduction 3
Part (a) Identifying the problem 3
Part (b) Concepts applied to issues identified 3
Part (c) Recommendations 3
Dear Patricia 3
I have written you this report as requested on helping you understand and hopefully change the current situation of your business my findings will be broken down into 3 parts as stated above. 3
Part II: Contribution & Understanding - TGF 5
References 5
Part I – Report on Lodge Bistro
To Patricia Lodge
From Julian Marshall Date: 30/10/2013
Summary & Introduction
Part (a) Identifying the problem
Part (b) Concepts applied to issues identified
Part (c) Recommendations
Dear Patricia
I have written you this report as requested on helping you understand and hopefully change the current situation of your business my findings will be broken down into 3 parts as stated above.
Part a
From what I can see the problem seems to be
* Currently the economy has moved into a recession therefore the amount of disposable income people are spending on eating and drinking has fallen
* The Lodge Bistro is constrained by its formula mainly being based in the south
* There is an inconsistency in staff recruitment, training and appraisal, food production and provision and this seems to have a...

...B120
An Introduction to Business Studies
TMA01
By Student Name
PI
TMA01 – Part 1
CONTENTS: Page No.
Part I – Report on Lodge Bistro 3
Summary & Introduction 3
Part (a) Identifying the problem 3
Part (b) Concepts applied to issues identified 3
Part (c) Recommendations 3
Part II: Contribution & Understanding - TGF 4
References 4
Part I – Report on Lodge Bistro
To Patricia Lodge
From xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date:
Summary & Introduction
In this report, I hope to help you understand the current issues and problems of the Lodge Bistro Chain. The obvious problems affecting the business are: high staff turnover, growing competition, external environment due to the current economic climate, inconsistency in the approach of management, a dated concept, reduced spending by customers, disagreement between managers and company standards lowering
Part (a) Identifying the problem
The current staffing problems with the company is affecting the business in many different ways, both the internal and external environment. The staffing problem, more specifically the higher than normal staff turnover, is having a major effect on the expenditure of the company. The constant training programme could influence current staff morale with the additional workload during peak times. The customer service will also fail in quality and consistency due to this...

...Attn : Patricia Lodge
Having reviewed the Lodge Bistro and the state it is in, I have identified several areas of concern that management may wish address. I have used a STEEP analysis (Preston, 2012) to identify the Sociological, Technological, Economical, Environmental and Political factors that are currently negatively impacting the business. By using this method, Patricia can gain a better understanding of the challenges she faces before deciding on a corrective course of action
Sociological
Changing core clientèle (older clients are more common now)
Unhappy staff due to high turnover
Management with differing ideas for the direction of the chain
Technological
The internet as a business tool is not being used by Lodge
Antiquated monitoring and control systems in place
Economical
Recession is altering the spending habits of customers
Money needs to be invested where there is a greater chance of a return
Environmental
Healthy eating options are becoming more popular
Store designs need to better reflect the client base the chain wants to attract
Political
(no evidence of any)
The external business environment that the lodge Bistro is in has changed since their inception. By analysing the they are in they will gain a better understanding of the challenge they face to return to past glories (Preston, 2012 pg 17).
Once Lodge Bistro understands the external forces at play they can look inwards and undertake a Strength, Weaknesses,...

...﻿Part I
In this short report, I hope to help you understand and change your current situation, using a concept from Study Session 2, The External Environment (B120 Book 1).
Part (a)
I believe the problems affecting The Lodge Bistro are:
High staff turnover.
Growing completion.
Inconsistency in the approach of the managers.
Conflicting Managers.
Reduced spending by customers.
Company Standards lowering.
Dated Décor and Menu.
Inexperienced staff.
Low quality food being served.
Custom Economic Climate.
Part (b)
I have used the concept STEEP to identify the problems at The Lodge Bistro.
STEEP has five factors:
Sociological.
Technological.
Economic.
Environmental.
Political.
These five factors help to define and analyse external environments, providing an accurate understanding of them. By doing a STEEP analysis it means you can identify the external environments that influence your business enabling you to identify problems and solutions.
This is my finding when doing a STEEP analysis for The Lodge Bistro:
Sociological Factors:
The Décor and Menu are based on the first Café that opened in 1989 and are Outdated. Although this image may be keeping your older more loyal customers happy, they are visiting less frequently and are not spending as much money as they used to.
Managers are adopting different approaches in areas including Staff Recruitment, Training and Appraisals, Food Production and Provision, resulting in...

...﻿
Dear Patricia Lodge,
I have conducted my report on the Lodge Bistro chain from the information provided using several analysis techniques and you will see my findings/recommendations below.
The first technique I used was something we call SWOT, which basically stands for strength’s, weaknesses, opportunities and threats internally/externally within a business (see fig 1.1). I have included two tables below for your comparison, one based on the company in early 2000’s and the other 2010 onwards.
Fig 1.1 (ref; http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/ikea/swot-analysis-and-sustainable-business-planning/swot-analysis.html#axzz2jKkA3pdH [accessed 31/10/2013]
Early 2000
Strength’s
Weaknesses
Good Brand Name
Good Business Model
Strong Customer Base
Extensive Audits
Monthly Financial Reports
Top Achiever Awards
Opportunities
Threats
Good Continuous Growth
Greasy Spoons
2010 Onwards
Strength’s
Weaknesses
Strong Brand Name
Computerised Financial Reports
High Staff Turnover
Too Much Freedom for Managers
Ageing Customer Base
Failure To Evolve
Opportunities
Threats
Mystery Diners
Fast Food Chains
Cafe Rouge
As you can see from the two tables there are vast differences, let’s take a look at these tables and I can expand on some of the points. In early 2000 the business was thriving, building a good reputable brand and growing comfortably proving that the business model was a success. This was down to a number of reasons which...

...
B120 TMA 02
Contents
Page 3………………………………. Executive Summary
Page 4…………………………………….....Part I Part (a)
Page 5……………………………………….Part I Part (b)
Page 7……………………………………….Part I Part (c)
Page 9……………………………………….Part I Part (d)
Page 10……………………………….…….Part II Part (b)
Page 11……………………………………..….References
Executive Summary
This report outlines a problem I faced a few years ago in my present employment.
Identified that there was a lack of communication between management and staff, resulting in de-motivated staff, outdated skills and no formal measure of performance.
I analyse the problem using the concept of ‘Assessing and Developing People at Work’ and find the main problem is no formal HRM structure of assessing employees’ performance and training needs, and also no feedback from staff about management performance resulting in almost an ‘us versus them’ mentality.
I suggest how to solve the issue of communication and how it benefitted the business as it does in other companies.
Part I Part (a)
I commenced my employment at my present company 14 years ago. Within my first two years as a receptionist I began to notice that I did not receive any feedback on my performance, only got told when I has done something...